BricsCAD: A True AutoCAD Alternative?

Over the past few years, Autodesk® and its Dealer Channel have made some very surprising moves in the marketplace.

Someone you know has purchased a AutoCAD® Vertical or “Suite” at a “sweetheart deal” only to realize maintenance costs skyrocket the second year

Someone you know has tried to downgrade from a AutoCAD® Vertical or “Suite” because they don’t need all the tools only to realize that is nearly impossible given the costs involved

Someone you know has calculated the total cost of ownership in relation to the new Desktop Subscription only to realize it’s going to cost a lot more money in the long run

Someone you know has been offered by the Channel to “Invest” in Perpetual Seats ‘before they disappear’ as opposed to the Desktop Subscription because the Dealers know the truth too

It appears that Autodesk has clearly underestimated the amount of dissatisfaction created in the market with these recent policies. It seems Users are finally ready for a change especially given some of the contentious negotiations taking place in the market.

But in the end, are we stuck with Autodesk® and AutoCAD® for all CAD Tasks?

Over the years, we have all seen many competitive products to AutoCAD®. Everyone remembers IntelliCAD (which still exists today in some form or fashion) and Generic CADD on our DOS Computer. Most AutoCAD® competitors have either disappeared, reside in a niche markets or are barely surviving. None to date have flourished because they have all lacked the functionality in some form or fashion to overcome the barriers of change needed to displace AutoCAD® at any significant level.

Can Companies find an AutoCAD Replacement with the overwhelming properties needed to change?

At a minimum, the product must have the following:

Rock-solid with a highly active development team

Same functionality as AutoCAD®

100% DWG compatibility

Low or non-existent transition costs.

But to really overcome all barriers, the replacement package must have the following:

A price point that provides such a significant savings that the software can not be ignored

The functionality to leverage the home grown assets every company has including Block Libraries, Drawing Templates, etc.

The ability to act seamlessly as a complimentary CAD Seat in any organization in order to build confidence and displace AutoCAD without injecting “change” or “concern” in the organization.

BricsCAD: A True AutoCAD Alternative

Although ECE Design relies heavily on CADWorx® and therefore AutoCAD®, we do perform ancillary tasks where an alternative would allow us to reduce our dependency on AutoCAD®. After the pricing change, ECE Design realized we could no longer wait and needed to take a closer look for a suitable complimentary CAD package that would not impact the organization and have Native .dwg support. One in particular, BricsCAD, came to mind as it relies on the Open Design Alliance (OpenDWG). As a founding member, BricsCAD offers a full-fledged 2D & 3D CAD software program that has the exact same look and feel as AutoCAD® with a smaller footprint, significantly lower cost and additional features not even found in AutoCAD®. Further, it offers LISP, .NET Managed and ARX programming functionality – All 3 of which ECE Design leverages heavily!

Are you tired of exorbitant pricing and stringent licensing policies of Autodesk? Do you require a full-fledged CAD software that will leverage your existing assets and product .dwg files natively at a very low cost?

Download a copy of BricCAD and give it a try. Let me know what you think,

ECE Design & Leica Geosystems will be co-hosting the free event “Plant scanning workflow with the BLK360 and new RTC360 Laser Scanner” on Tuesday, August 28th at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites West Energy[...]